April 23, 2008

Bernie Green Plays More Than You Can Stand

A few years ago, I was scanning through a batch of used reel to reel tapes I'd bought, when I came across one which contained several tracks which were much less mainstream than the rest of the material on these tapes. I was particularly taken with a pair of songs which the original owner of the tapes had indicated were by Bernie Green, and described as "More Than You Can Stand". Both tracks were fantastic, and I assumed that the notation was a joke about the "fringe" quality of the material.

A search through the internet found enough references for me to learn that Bernie Green had released at least three albums, one in conjunction with both the great Henry Morgan and Mad Magazine, and another one called "Bernie Green Plays More Than You Can Stand In Hi-Fi". I quickly snapped up copies of all three albums via various online sellers. While the Mad album (and the other one) have their moments (and both of those have been reissued on CD), "More Than You Can Stand", which as far as I can tell has not been re-issued since its original 1950's release, is the real killer.

Today I've provided four of my favorite tracks. The music strikes me as a combination of Spike Jones and Raymond Scott. This is particularly true of "Ragging the Scale", which for my money is the standout track, particularly for the role played by the timpanist, who must have worked long and hard to be able to do things he does here.

One other note is that the calliope on the final selection is played by the great Dick Hyman.

(Incidentally, the scan of the cover is quite clearly a composite from two separate scans, as my scanner can't take in the full cover, and I can't seem to make the two parts scan at the same degree of darkness!)

Love this music. That is the actual theme song from the old Wally Cox TV show Mr. Peepers. What an odd piece of music to cover. I would have to say my personal fave is the Concerto for Calliope. An original idea and totaly whacked out!

Dick Hyman had three Hot 100 hits in the "rock era". He and his trio were among many to have big hits in 1956 with instrumental versions of "Mack the Knife", under the title "Moritat", peaking at # 8. The same trio made a great version of "Hi-Lili, Hi-Lo", which got to # 78 in the same year, and in 1969, he returned to the top 40 as "Dick Hyman and his elecric eclectics", peaking at # 38 with "The Minotaur".

i recently watched the Mister Peepers DVD set released by the UCLA Film and Television Archive. It's a very over rated sitcom from the days of early television but that theme song is so infectious, I hummed along to it during the closing credits to every episode. Green composed a lot of stuff for early TV - especially radio shows that had been turned into television shows - like Arthur Godfrey and The Fat Man. Here's a small list of some of the radio shows he worked on:

Some of Bernie Green's novelty tunes can be found on various nostalgia LP and cassette recordings of the Henry Morgan Show, for which he was music director.

On the "More Than You Can Stand" LP, of which I own a copy, is a note saying that a stereo version (never released on an LP) was available on San Francisco Tapes. That means a stereo master exists somewhere! Oh, please, let it not be wiped or crumbled into dust, so that the possibility exists of a CD edition someday.

A CD of the MAD magazine LP has been released, but the only copy I ever found was on -- would you believe -- RCA Records of Spain. I found it in a bargain bin in a now-defunct record store in Vancouver, Canada, where I produce a weekly mixed-bag radio show on a volunteer-run community FM station. Just the other night, as part of a show with a Western theme, I played Green's "Gunsmirk Suite."

I think there could be a wide audience for this particular type of music, as it certainly has a good natured, cartoon-like quality. I was happy to see this posted, as I was a fan of Mad Lps, and there simply isn't enough of this sort of stuff made. Thanks for the cool post. Keep diggin!